Thursday, June 9, 2011

Book Review: Enchantment

Another book review: This time it is Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions by Guy Kawasaki (@GuyKawasaki).

First things first: I am not going to compare Enchantment to Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends and Influence People. This has been done in countless other reviews. So far all of you who have not read Dale Carnegie's book (I have neither) here is the review:

A Cookbook for Enchanting People
Guy Kawasaki (@GuyKawasaki) provides us with a variety of hands-on recipes - a successful relief from the theoretical high-level approach pursued by many other books. While the chapters form a consistent storyline (from "Why Enchantment?" and "How to Achieve Trustworthiness" to "How To Use Push Technology" and "How to Enchant your Employees") the advice discussed in the respective chapters ranges from one-to-one interactions to delivering a presentation like Steve Jobs  or managing a Twitter account like Guy (@GuyKawasaki).

One example is on page 24 where it is recommended to "Default to Yes". In other words, always agree to help people with their requests and do not say "no". My personal note to this bit of advice would be: Before you default to yes please learn to say "no". From time to time an appropriate "no" can save you from big troubles.

Thourough Research
What I  enjoyed most about Enchantment were the various references to research dealing with human behavior and perception such as the explanation of the social proof effect, which is the concept that "if other people are doing something, then it must be OK, right, cool, and maybe even optimal" (p. 72). There are many similar examples spread throughout the book and they are applicable to a myriad of situations you might encounter sooner or later.

The Small, Enchanting Stuff
It is not just the content of the book that makes it a good read. It is also how Guy Kawasaki (@GuyKawasaki) presents it. Throughout the book we find various quotations and every chapter ends with a very personal 'enchantment story'. In the end Guy even presents "Guy's Realistic Enchantment Aptitude Test (GREAT)" to test your knowledge of the book. These are textbook examples of how to invite readers to immerse themselves into a story. In this case the great story of enchantment.

You can find more information about Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions here, here and here. It is definitely worth the read!

Currently I am reading How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker. Follow me on Twitter to know if it is any good.

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